The Wrath of Karma

Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, resigned today. We may be seeing more executive cleaning at Chrysler as well. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bring a smile to my face.

When I was just starting in the ad game, I had the opportunity to write commercials for the Southern California Chrysler Dealers. The dealers had gotten very excited because they had just signed Ricardo Montalban to be their new spokesperson.

My partner and I diligently went about preparing a slew of new work.

We assembled at the swanky Los Angeles Athletic Club to present our work to 50 or so of the most powerful Chrysler/Plymouth Dealers. The lights dimmed, the room grew quiet and I made my monumental pitch. As I put down the last storyboard, I imagined myself being showered with praise and being handed the keys to a brand new Chrysler New Yorker.

Frank, from San Diego, a fireplug of a man with close-cropped hair and an affinity for plaid polyester, wasted no time rendering his verdict. He pushed back his chair, cleared his throat and filled the room with, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not putting a dime of my money into any of this SHIT.”

Though he crushed my dreams that day, Frank unwittingly corrected my career course and sent it on a more fruitful trajectory.

How refreshing it would be, if at the next Detroit bailout hearings, our President took a momentary pause from his cool, calm demeanor and turned to these Hummer-building, private-jet-flying bozos and said, “ I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not putting a dime of my money into any of this SHIT.”